Mariupol, an industrial hub in the south of embattled Donetsk Oblast, remains tense as the Russian-backed armed groups keep control over the village of Kominternove located 24 kilometers from the port city.
Militants
have been shelling Ukrainian forces in the area around Mariupol, Ukraine’s Anti-Terrorist Operation reports.
Three Ukrainian soldiers were wounded in shootouts on the
frontlines, according to Andriy Lysenko, a Ukrainian military spokesperson.
The Russian-backed combatants
unexpectedly took Kominternove on Dec. 22, which was located in a buffer
zone not controlled by either side. They reportedly left it soon after but
returned on Dec. 25, the ATO press service said in the report on Dec. 26.
“The bandits established a checkpoint on a road
connecting Kominternove with Mariupol and don’t allow anyone to leave the
village,” the ATO press-service said.
The press-service added that the separatists
shelled the neighboring village of Vodyane from 120-caliber mortars – artillery
banned by the Minsk peace deal signed in February.
Andriy Biletsky, commander of the Azov volunteer
battalion operating in the Mariupol proximities, told in an interview with
Hromadske TV, a news agency, that separatist forces left Kominternove just 3-4
hours before the monitoring mission of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe was expected to visit the village.
Biletsky added that the pro-Russian combatants
had five tanks and eight armored vehicles in Kominternove and hide them in the
close-by village Zaichenko when needed.
The OSCE monitors were able to visit
Kominternove briefly on Dec. 24 after two days of unsuccessful attempts. They
didn’t see any armored vehicles there but admitted that separatists didn’t
allow them to visit the main street allegedly for security reasons.
Ukraine’s defense minister Stepan Poltorak said
during a news briefing that by capturing Kominternove separatists tried to
provoke the Ukrainian armed forces to open fire, which, in turn, would violate
the peace deal.
